Urban Spaces as Arenas for Innovation and Learning

On 22 April, ULALABS hosted the webinar “Urban Spaces as Arenas for Innovation and Learning”, organised by the University of Stavanger (UiS). The session brought together practitioners and researchers from across Europe to explore how urban (public) spaces can function as environments for experimentation, innovation and collective learning.

The webinar was opened by Todor Kesarovski (University of Stavanger), who framed the discussion around the role of cities as spaces where new ideas can be tested, shared and scaled. He highlighted the importance of cross-case learning and invited participants to reflect on how urban experimentation can support social, environmental and well-being outcomes. The session formed part of the Cross-case learning pilot running throughout this spring semestre.

Round of panellists’ presentations

The session featured three case-based presentations, offering complementary perspectives on how urban spaces serve as testing grounds for knowledge generation, learning, and innovation.

• Valencia: opening the city as a sandbox

Gema Roig Pallardó (City Council of Valencia) presented the Valencia Urban Sandbox Initiative, a framework that enables companies and organisations to test innovative solutions across the city.

She explained how a dedicated legal ordinance, a one-stop-shop model and reduced administrative barriers allow Valencia to open up a wide range of urban resources across the city for experimentation. Her presentation highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration, agility in administrative processes and the value of testing solutions in real urban environments.

• Linköping: a test bed for sustainable urban development

Sara Malmgren (Ebbepark) shared the experience of Ebbepark as a testbed for sustainable urban development.

She explained how collaboration between municipal companies, the municipality, the university and innovation actors enables the testing of solutions in real-life settings. Her intervention emphasised the importance of shared values, cross-sector collaboration and having organisational structures in place to support experimentation.

• Stavanger: participation through “uninvited spaces”

Jens Kaae Fisker (University of Stavanger) presented a different perspective, focusing on citizen participation through utopian future workshops.

His contribution explored how “uninvited spaces” of participation can emerge when residents feel excluded from formal planning processes. Through a case in Stavanger, he showed how collective critique, visioning and action can empower communities to shape alternative futures for their neighbourhoods by focusing on urban space as a prime theme. [Link to the paper]

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Roundtable: Experimentation in urban public space

The roundtable discussion, moderated by Todor Kesarovski, brought together the three speakers to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of using urban spaces as arenas for experimentation.

A key theme throughout the discussion was the complexity of implementing experimentation in real urban contexts. While cities offer unique opportunities to test solutions in real-world conditions, they also require coordination across municipal departments, alignment with regulations, and careful consideration of public safety and local context.

Learning outcomes and key reflections

The discussion highlighted several key aspects of urban experimentation in public space. Urban spaces provide unique conditions for testing solutions and reflecting on innovative ideas in real-life environments, enabling cities to generate practical knowledge that cannot be replicated in controlled settings. However, implementing experimentation in these contexts requires both formal structures, such as legal frameworks, institutional support and internal coordination, and informal dynamics, including trust, collaboration and long-term relationships between stakeholders.

Flexibility also emerged as a critical factor, enabling experiments to adapt their scale and scope to local conditions and feasibility.

From a participatory perspective, speakers stressed that urban experimentation should go beyond technological innovation and actively support inclusive governance and meaningful citizen engagement. Involving local communities is essential, both to shape experimentation processes and to ensure that they generate tangible value for the areas where they take place. Following this line of thought, the panellists agreed that, regardless of the context, learning from experimentation extends beyond technical outcomes. It also includes insights on governance, regulation, social acceptance and implementation, which are key to scaling up successful initiatives and integrating them into long-term urban practices.

Overall, the webinar demonstrated various perspectives on how urban spaces can serve as platforms for collective learning, where diverse actors collaborate to test, refine and rethink solutions in real contexts.

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Publications and project framework

The webinar also highlighted key ULALABS publications available on the project’s website, which summarise the main findings and experiences developed during the previous phases of the project.

In particular, The Emerging Lab of Labs provides a comprehensive overview of methodologies, practices and lessons learned across European urban experimentation spaces, including in-depth case studies of the Valencia Urban Sandbox and Ebbepark that participated in the webinar.

The Mutual Learning Communities Roadmap complements this by outlining the methodological framework and guiding principles for the development of the project’s pilot phase.

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